PSF Meeting Minutes for 2005-05-10

The Python Software Foundation
Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors

May 10, 2005

A regular meeting of the Python Software Foundation (the "PSF") Board
of Directors was held over Internet Relay Chat at 17:00 GMT. Stephan Deibel
presided at the meeting.

1. Attendance

The following members of the Board of Directors were present at the
meeting: David Ascher, Stephan Deibel, Tim Peters, Andrew Kuchling,
and Martin v. Löwis.
Kurt Kaiser and Neal Norwitz also attended the meeting. von Löwis took minutes.

2. Meeting minutes of past meetings

The April minutes were approved with a 5-0-0 vote.
The December minutes were still missing.

3. PyCon Planning

The board discusses the proposals for venues for the next PyCon.
Under consideration was a draft contract with the University of
Maryland Community College (UMUC), and Marriott's conference center.
Several board members expressed concern about the increase in costs;
Peters said PyCon was supposed to be a low-cost community
conference. Kuchling explained that the hotel food is the
largest cost driver.

Staying with George Washington University was discussed. The
main issue is that PyCon's attendance might not fit into the
meeting rooms that GWU can provide. Deibel suggested to cap
the attendance. Smaller rooms are also available on GWU for
further sessions, but they might also be booked already.

von Löwis asked about expected attendance; Kuchling explained
that, at a registration fee of $250, he would expect the conference
would need 300 to 350 attendants to break even. Predicting these
things is difficult, of course.

The time of the event was also discussed. The committee was
looking at February 2006; several directores objected that
this is hardly "spring", and that a later point in the year
should be considered. Kuchling explained that that might
cause an increase in hotel charges for the attendees.

Kuchling summarized the discussion as follows: the UMUC
proposal was killed, and the board would prefer if attendance
fees stayed about the same.

4. Europython

Deibel asked whether the PSF should sponsor something at EuroPython,
to refute the impression that the PSF is an U.S. centric. Ascher
said that we should not do anything without a champion. Deibel
said that he would ask the PSF members list whether there are
any volunteers that need support.

5. Grants committee

von Löwis reported that Brian Zimmer had to withdraw from
the grant, because of changes in employment. The board agreed
to pay that work that was done up to that point.

6. Other business

A number of other things would need to be discussed. Because
the meeting was running out of time, they were deferred to
email or to the next meeting.